About the job

Job summary

We’re looking for an exceptional Senior Developer to help us make a difference to our planet.

As our Senior Developer, the job may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in the office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and the location advertised will be your contractual place of work.

Our opportunity is full time, 37 hours per week. Our people are at the heart of what we do and we'll do our best to agree a working pattern that works for everyone.

World changing work

From science to technology, from meteorology to management, and from planning to communication, our expertise helps us stand out as the authority on weather accuracy and climate prediction. We help individuals, industries and government to make better decisions to stay safe and thrive. This is the Met Office. This is who we are.

• We’re a force for good - focusing on our environmental and social impact
• We’re experts by nature - always learning and developing to do things better
• We live and breathe it - putting our purpose at the heart of decision-making
• We’re better together - understanding partnerships and inclusivity make us greater
• We keep evolving - pushing boundaries to make tomorrow better for our customers

Job description

Your world of expertise

We are looking for 2 Senior Developers, you will lead a team of developers working within one of 2 areas of the Met Office, we have posts in Data Services and Hazards and Resilience.  You will design, build and operate systems on AWS public cloud, providing critical weather data underpinning Met Office products and services providing critical weather services to Met Office customers.

Your key duties

Data Services: 
 
 This role is part of the Data Services Tribe in the National Capability Technology function.

• The weather and climate 'National Capability' encompasses the science and technology required to deliver the data which underpins weather and climate services. 
• As a Senior Developer Management in Data Services, you will create systems which bridge the gap between our front-end products and the back-end science, ensuring that we are able to make the very best use of our ever-evolving supercomputer capability. Many terabytes of data pass through the Data Services estate each day, so the role requires an acute understanding of system scaling and performance optimisation.  
• This is an exciting opportunity to work in a cutting-edge development team that has a wide-reaching and positive impact, helping people to stay safe and thrive. 
• You will work with your team to understand, design, and implement modern, full stack, cloud-based solutions. You will also work collaboratively with your peers in the Science and Technology community, building relationships and sharing your knowledge.

Hazards and Resilience Space Weather:

•  Hazards and Resilience provide weather information to the UK Resilience Community to enable them to make better informed decisions to protect lives and property.
• This post is in the Space Weather team within Hazards and Resilience. The Space Weather service consists of forecaster visualisation tools that enables ingestion of a variety of space weather data for visualisation by forecasters in the Met Office Space Weather Operations Centre. The forecasters use this to produce space weather forecasts, alerts and guidance. The created products are made available on the Met Office website (premium and public pages) and under contract to specific customers. 
• As the Senior Developer - Management in the Space Weather Team you will work with the Space Weather 3rd Party development team to understand, design, and implement modern, full stack, cloud-based solutions using a modern standards approach. You will also work collaboratively with Space Weather scientists, forecasters, the product and the programme teams, building relationships and sharing your knowledge.

This is a very exciting opportunity to work in a very specialised but increasingly important area.

 A Senior Developer – management delivers and integrates software to form a complete service.  These roles are aligned to Senior Developer – management  - Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework (ddat-capability-framework.service.gov.uk) on the GOV.UK website.

Person specification

Essential Criteria, skills and experience:

1. Team relationships Lead and motivate your team to be inclusive and honest, creating the right environment to work in and empower them to deliver. (Better together)
2. Systems integration. You can define the integration build. You can co-ordinate build activities across systems. You can understand how to undertake and support integration testing activities. 
3. Programming and build (software engineering). You can collaborate with others when necessary to review specifications. You can use the agreed specifications to design, code, test and document programs or scripts of medium-to-high complexity, using cloud native technologies and Python. (Expert by nature)
4. User focus.  You can collaborate with user researchers and can represent users internally.   Explain the difference between user needs and the desires of the user.  Champion user research to focus on all users. Prioritise and define approaches to understand the user story, guiding others in doing so.  Offer recommendations on the best tools and methods to use. 
5. Systems design.  You can design systems characterised by medium levels of risk, impact, and business or technical complexity.  Select appropriate design standards, methods and tools, and ensure they are applied effectively.  Review the systems designs of others to ensure the selection of appropriate technology, efficient use of resources and integration of multiple systems and technology. 

Desirable Criteria: (Data Services role only)

We encourage you to apply if you believe you meet our essential criteria, but we’re also keen to discover if you have:

1. Experience of job scheduler technology similar to https://cylc.github.io/.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £41,725, Met Office contributes £11,265 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

How to apply

If you share our values, we’d love to hear from you! Click apply to begin your application. Please complete your career history and provide evidence against each of the essential criteria in the supporting statement questionnaire. We recommend candidates use the CARL method (Context, Action, Result and Learning) for presenting evidence of experience and skills.

Closing date 04/08/2024 at 23:59 with first stage interviews commencing from 19/08/2024. You will hear from us once the closing date has passed.

How we can help

If you are considering applying and need support to do so, please contact us via careers@metoffice.gov.uk. You can request adjustments either within your application or by contacting us. Should you be offered an interview, please be aware there may be a selection exercise which could include a presentation, written test or a scenario-based activity. You can select in your application to be considered under the Disability Confident Scheme. To be invited to interview/assessment under this scheme, your application must meet the essential criteria for the role.

We understand that great minds don’t always think alike and as an equal opportunities employer we welcome applications from those with all protected characteristics. We recruit on merit, fairness, and open competition in line with the Civil Service Code.

We can only accept applications from those eligible to live and work in the UK - please refer to GOV.UK for information. We require Security clearance, for which you need to have resided in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years to be eligible. You will need to achieve full security clearance within your first 6 months with us.

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

Open to UK nationals only.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.